When Discipline is Bad

When Discipline is Bad

Catch it? Oh yes he did!

Caution: The following post may be considered racist and politically incorrect.  It is not my intent, and I apologize for offending anyone’s sensibilities.

I was watching a college football game today and saw a receiver make an incredible one-handed catch of an overthrown ball that could only have been made one-handed.  A few years ago you would never see such a catch.  As a matter of fact that kind of catch would have been discouraged.  Coaches used to yell at receivers who attempted that kind of catch.

“Two-hands! Two-hands God-Dammit, cut out that hotdog crap.”

Then a player made a one-handed impossible catch to win a game and coaches started yelling,

“Way to go…nice catch…you’re beautiful.”

Ok, here is where I get racist.  Who started making these one-handed catches?  Black athletes made them.  Black athletes sometimes are undisciplined.  Well that is how their performances were often described until they started winning games for white coaches.

New York Giant receiver Odell Beckham practices the one-handed grab.  He uses two hands when he can of course, but when that pass comes along that can only be made one-handed he makes it because he has practiced making it.  

Somewhere along his football career Odell was probably hollered at by a coach for his lack of discipline.  I’m sure he was told to not even practice the one-handed catch.  “You’re going to get into a bad habit if you keep doing that”…until his ability won a game.  Then they started receiver drills in practice where all the receivers had to only use one hand.

Football has always been a game of discipline. 

Years ago when a running play was called, the ball carrier was expected to run the ball to a specific spot.  Blocking assignments were drawn up to open a hole in that specific spot.  If that spot was blocked by opposing players, the runner was expected to put his head down and drive.

The undisciplined black running backs often did not put their head down and drive, they often lifted their head and looked for another place to run.  They were yelled at for this, especially when they did not find extra running room.

“Dammit Jackson, that play was for the number four hole, if it isn’t there, you’ve gotta put your head down and drive!”

The black athletes did not listen to the coach and where the disciplined white runners put their head down and drove for an extra yard, the black runner often jumped outside, or sometimes completely reversed direction and turned a two yard gain into a long touchdown. 

It was not uncommon when a running back changed direction and risked a big loss, to hear the coach screaming,

“NO! NO! Dammit, you can’t do…GO! Go! Yes, yes…WAY TO GO, nice run!!”

Today running plays don’t have a specific area to run, the line now “zone blocks” and the runner looks for an opening.  The undisciplined black athlete changed the philosophy of the game.

Why were the black football players less disciplined than the white players?  Possibly just a culture of not blindly listening to the “White Man’s” rules, especially when the rules didn’t make sense and the athlete knew they had the ability to make great things happen out of nothing.

In sports, as in many other facets of life, strict discipline, listening to the experts, doing things the accepted way isn’t always right.  Sometimes you need to stand up to those in charge and challenge the accepted way of doing things in order to achieve greatness.

Just to make this post a little less racist, sometimes it has been the white athlete who shuns the direction of a coach and changes a sport.  I’m sure a certain white high jumper  was instructed many times to stop clearing the bar with his ridiculous ass-backwards jumping style.

“God-Dammit Fosbury, that is not the way to jump, you’re going to break your neck.”

For the last thirty-five years there has not been a single Olympic high jumper that did not clear the bar using the patented backwards jumping technique known as the “Fosbury Flop.”

I have re-read this post several times and I honestly do not find it to be racist.  If I am wrong, once again, I apologize.  Some of my best friends were once undisciplined running backs.